These days in the English-speaking world with a few notable and noble exceptions we can look for leadership only in the past. Below is another instance.
In the 1930s and 1940s Eleanor Roosevelt concluded that she would damned no matter what she did, so she might as well do as she thought was right. She did, early and often. ‘Eleanor Everywhere’ is what husband Franklin called her. She invited blacks to the White House. Lend her name to early women’s rights groups. Picked fruit with migrant workers. Signed over the income from her journalism to a children’s charity. Held the hands of GIs dying of war wounds in the Pacific. For all of this she vilified by the Pox News professional haters of the day.
She is the only First Lady with a statue in D.C. and that seems right. A biography of Eleanor Everywhere is discussed on my blog.